Tuesday, December 30, 2014

I
must congratulate myself on successfully avoiding virtually all of Gen Olusegun
Obasanjo’s usually ego-massaging and attention-craving books. I have, for
instance, NOT read Obasanjo’s My Command, Not My Will, Nzeogwu,
and his other little-known titles.

*Olusegun Obasanjo

(pix: magazine.tcu)

But
when his first wife, Mrs. Oluremi Obasanjo, published her book, Bitter-Sweet:
My Life With Obasanjo, I
went through a lot of stress to purchase a copy. I also wasted no time to read
and review it. Obasanjo had been talking
about other people and cutting them down with self-righteous zeal, so I wanted
to hear what somebody who had intimately shared a greater part of his life had
to say about him. Indeed, this is one
book Obasanjo would not like to be in circulation. But most people who have read the book would
readily recommend it as a background study to anyone interested in reading
Obasanjo’s books where he usually presents himself as one of the world’s most
righteous human beings and competent leaders. Like one reviewer said and I
agree, in societies where the law is alive and
active and treats everyone equally, “the allegations against Obasanjo [in that
book], if proven in a court of law, would have earned him a long stay in jail.”

Now,
Obasanjo has published another book which he called My Watch and I seriously
doubt that I would want to read it. There are several wonderful books lying in
my study and begging for my attention, so I would consider it a complete waste
of my time to read Obasanjo’s new book, which judging from the snippets
published in the media is nothing more than unappetizing potpourri of
cassava-market gossip, careless hawking of vicious, libelous allegations, and
further futile attempt at self-canonization. His aim, it appears, is to settle
some scores with his real or imagined adversaries, undermine President
Jonathan’s chances in the February 2015 elections and raise an ear-deafening
controversy that would turn the book into an instant best-seller.

Sunday, December 21, 2014

Former
President Olusegun Obasanjo released his autobiography, My Watch, on Tuesday,
December 9 at the Lagos Country Club, Ikeja.

President Jonathan and Obasanjo

He defied
an Abuja High Court order obtained by a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
chieftain, Buruji Kashamu, barring him from releasing the book. Rather than
obey the order, Obasanjo wanted Justice Valentine Ashi sanctioned. The
judge had ordered that the book launch be put on hold over claims by Kashamu
that the three-volume series contained details of a libel case involving a drug
trafficking allegation Obasanjo made against him, which is already before the
court. Obasanjo’s excuse that the book
had been published before the order was made is as ludicrous as it is bizarre.

But that
is quintessential Obasanjo, who has no respect for others, who revels in
desecrating hallowed institutions. Holding him in contempt of court,
Ashi on Wednesday, December 10 gave him 21 days to demonstrate why he should
not be punished for publishing the book.

“The fact that the book was
published in November is irrelevant. As long as the substantive suit is not yet
determined, no party is entitled to publish or comment on material facts that
are yet to be decided on by the court,” the judge said.

Thursday, December 18, 2014

It took 70 years,
but a 14-year-old African American boy from Alcolu, South Carolina
who was executed for allegedly killing two white girls has now been exonerated
of murder.

George Stinney Jr

In a ruling issued
Wednesday by Circuit Judge Carmen Mullen, the murder conviction against George
Stinney was vacated over concerns that the young boy’s constitutional right to
a fair trial was violated to the point that his name should be cleared,WIS TVreported.

Stinney, who was so
small at the time of his execution by electric chair that he had to sit on a
phone book, is often cited as the youngest American to be put to death by the
state in the 20th century.

During his trial in
1944, Stinney’s white lawyer did not present witnesses or cross-examine
witnesses presented by the prosecution. In 2009, Stinney’s sister claimed in an
affidavit that her brother could not have killed the two young girls because he
was with her at the time their deaths occurred.

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Guinea is due to hold presidential elections in 2015. The
country’s electoral history, the failure of dialogue between the government and
the opposition and the indefinite postponement of local elections originally
scheduled for early 2014 are all bad omens. With a divided political scene
split along ethnic lines, and in the grip of an Ebola epidemic that has
weakened Guinea’s
economy, the government has two options. It can either promote dialogue and
establish a credible framework for the second free presidential election in the
country’s history, a framework that could include a negotiated postponement; or
run the risk of instability and inter-ethnic violence. Given its control of
institutions and the political timetable, it must work with the opposition and
international partners to build minimum consensus on electoral arrangements in
order to reduce the risk of violent protests in the lead up to, during or after
the vote.

Such a consensus must be stronger than the one
reached for the September 2013 legislative elections, held after a delay of
almost three years. Those polls were preceded by fierce controversy and violent
demonstrations. Although the conduct of the vote was peaceful, the opposition
accused the government of fraud and called for the elections to be annulled.
Many foreign observers questioned the integrity of the polls. The government
managed to contain tensions only because the opposition felt that legislative
elections were of secondary importance, and because international partners
mediated between the two sides.

I am gravely pained to be trading words
with General Olusegun Obasanjo once
again on the history of Nigeria-Biafra War. He is an elder and a former ruler who, ordinarily, should be treated
with utmost respect.

*Alabi-Isama (pix: vanguard)

But how can one genuinely
respect an old man who tells lies like a badly raised child? Obasanjo has
obviously not recovered from the shock inflicted on him by my book, The
Tragedy of Victory in which I exposed the tissues of lies in his
civil war memoir, My Command. It is said that a lie may travel for a thousand miles, but it takes just
one step of truth to catch up with it.

I’m alive to stand up to him on the lies he has
told on the war because I was a major participant in it. I kept
records. With facts and figures at my finger tips, I have debunked
Obasanjo’s lies in part three of my book, consisting of one hundred and
sixty five pages, sixty nine pictures, thirteen military strategies and
tactics, maps and documents. This was the same Obasanjo who
published a fake Federal Government gazette that I was found guilty by the
Army when I was never tried. I have proved that Obasanjo was an
incompetent commander. I have proved that he was a wily and cunning fellow, and
an incredible opportunist who reaped where he did not sow.

I have proved that he was an ingrate and a hypocrite.
More importantly, I have proved that he was a coward, who ran away from
the war front to go and look for phantom ammunition. Rather than
respond to my claims the way a gallant officer should, he has now responded
like a motor-park tout, impugning my person and questioning my
ethnic lineage. I never said I was from Ibadan. I only schooled there.

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Away from the international spotlight, the Central African Republic’s rural areas are turning into fields of violence as war over territory and livestock hits a highly vulnerable population, with effects increasingly felt in neighbouring Cameroon and Chad.

“The country’s crisis has exacerbated old conflicts and produced new ones. Rural Central African Republic is now the stage for a violent competition over livestock, the wealth of the poor”.

Thibaud Lesueur, Crisis Group’s Central Africa Analyst

In its latest briefing,The Central African Republic’s Hidden Conflict, the International Crisis Group examines a dangerous conflict-within-a-conflict requiring urgent action by the transitional government and its international partners. Targeted by anti-balaka militias and ex-Seleka fighters, many pastoralist communities are left in extreme poverty and forced to flee. Tens of thousands cross the border to Cameroon and Chad where, in turn, land pressure intensifies. Many of the victims seek retribution or join armed groups to survive, becoming actors in a conflict that divides communities and damages a pillar of the traditional economy.

Friday, December 12, 2014

For all it may be worth, the last tirade against
President Goodluck Jonathan by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, is certainly
one of the salvos intended to weaken the support base of the President as his
enemies led by Obasanjo plan to hit him below the belt. But the reactions of
Nigerians of varied backgrounds to Obasanjo's old tricks show that Nigerians
are no fools. The people's condemnation of Obasanjo's arrant hypocrisy has been
overwhelming. The first reaction came from no less a personality than the
traditional ruler of Lagos, His Majesty Oba
Rilwan Akiolu, who said that Obasanjo's government was the most corrupt
in the history of Nigeria.
The respected monarch cannot be more correct. Amidst Obasanjo's catalogue of
anti-corruption verbal interventions, the question that now begs for an urgent
answer is: is Obasanjo among the Saints?

*Obasanjo

Due largely to the lamentable short memory of
homosepiens, it seems as though we have forgotten so soon about the person of
Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and his recent past. But the poor boy from OwuVillage
in OgunState was led by fortuitous and
opportunistic circumstances to have a rendezvous with history and destiny.
Against his will and command, Obasanjo became head of state after the
assassination of his boss, General Murtala Muhammed. He was said to have been
the man who launched Nigeria
into the estranged comity of heavily indebted nations when he took the first
ever N1 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan in 1978 when the
Nigerian currency was 75 kobo to the United States dollar. It was said
that more than half of this money was not accounted for by General Obasanjo
while a fraction of it was left for the incoming administration of Alhaji Shehu
Shagari in October 1979.

In politics if
you want anything said ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman –Margret
Hilda Thatcher, ex-British Prime Minister

Last year the government in Romania heeded this counsel from
the late British leader, Baroness Thatcher. The authorities, gravely worried by
high profile corruption slowly killing the country, appointed a woman, Laura
Codruta Kovesi, to man the nation’s National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA).
Within a very short time this 41-year-old 1995 law graduate has turned the formerly
quiescent agency into a viable attack dog mauling down those who had
themselves been bringing down the economy and politics of Romania with
their corrupt practices.

*Laura Codruta Kovesi

She has become the most feared public office holder on account of her
exploits in an attempt to do what was thought to be impossible: battling graft
in high places to a standstill and arresting its spread. Although as in Nigeria, she is
horrified that the citizens have expressed
distaste for corruption, they still keep voting for politicians
suspected or convicted of larceny. “ It
is extremely difficult to explain this contrast,” Kovesi laments.

But according to an international news magazine report last week, this
depressing situation has not discouraged
the woman. A New York Times writer, Andrew Higgins, says: “Since Ms. Kovesi
took over D.N.A last year, what was a trickle of high-profile arrests and
prosecutions has become a flood. Nearly all have ended in convictions, with her
prosecutors recording a success rate of over 90 percent.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has welcomed the emergence of former Military Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari as the Presidential flagbearer of Bola Tinubu's All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2015 general elections.

*BuhariThis will be the fourth time General Buhari will be contesting in the presidential elections. On each of the three previous occasions, he failed to articulate a vision of the future that was acceptable to Nigerians. On each occasion his brand of politics was rejected across Nigeria. Apart from changing to a dinner suit, General Buhari, has not changed the tired ideas and provocative utterances that Nigerians rejected in previous elections.

We hope that this time round, General Buhari will conduct a campaign that is issue based and devoid of ethno-religious sentiments.

Monday, December 8, 2014

Addressing protests over minorities killed by police officers,
President Obama said racism is “deeply rooted” in the U.S. and that activists should keep
pressing steadily in their demands for reform.

“This is something that is
deeply rooted in our society, it’s deeply rooted in our history,” Mr. Obama
said in an interview with BET, a portion of which was released Sunday. “When
you’re dealing with something as deeply rooted as racism or bias … you’ve got
to have vigilance but you have to recognize that it’s going to take some time,
and you just have to be steady so you don’t give up when we don’t get all the
way there.”

Mr. Obama
held meetings at theWhite Houselast week with young
civil-rights activists who are protesting the shooting death of an unarmed
black teenager by a white police officer last August inFerguson, Missouri.

Friday, December 5, 2014

In a feat of acerbic verbal tantrums, Nobel
Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka Tuesday December 2, attacked President Goodluck
Jonathan and likened the Nigerian leader to Nebuchadnezzar, the Biblical
autocrat and king of Babylon
who initially denounced the Living Supreme God. Soyinka who addressed a press
conference on the state of the nation at the popular FreedomGarden in Lagos, said that Jonathan is tyrannical
because the Inspector General of Police, Suleiman Abba, stopped the attempt by
the defected speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, to enter
the Green Chamber of the National Assembly with thugs. The respected professor
of dramatic literature who is clearly biased in his recent pronouncements given
his current alignment with top leaders of the opposition political party, the
All Progressives Congress (APC), said so many unprintable things against the
administration of President Jonathan.

*President Jonathan and Prof Soyinka

Indeed, the distinguished playwright is entitled
to his opinion especially in a wide democratic space in which freedom of
association and of speech is the norm. But it is unfortunate that the renowned
literary icon could allow his judgment to be beclouded by ahistorical
considerations. By this recent act of likening Jonathan to Nebuchadnezzar,
Soyinka has come down from his Olympian height as a global citizen and
statesman to the sheer pedestrian rabble of petty villainy and rancour. It is a
pointer to the fact that every great intellectual has his weak points. Our own
Kongi is no exception. Even with the unsavory political development in Anambra
State in 2004 which led to the unfortunate withdrawal of the security personnel
of former Governor Chris Ngige after his attempted abduction by the police, no
Nigerian, not even Professor Chinua Achebe who rejected former President
Olusegun Obasanjo's national award due to that crisis, went as far as comparing
the former President with Nebuchadnezzar.

As it is going to be with the next set of
Senators of the United States of America, where new faces, the majority being
the Republicans, are coming up, Nigeria in 2015 may witness a similar
displacement of old hands in its Senate. I am not making any attempt to predict
bloc party victory or defeat.

Ben Murray Bruce

(pix: thenewsnigeria)

There is always some tricky of
impreciseness in it for analysts. In the case of the US, it was perhaps “easy” for the
Cable News Network (CNN) to arrive at
its 246-Senate seat forecast for the Republicans in the November 2014 ballot
because of the near-infallible opinion poll system in the country. CNN
journalists and experts relied on such advanced sampling techniques as computer
technology and sociological and psychological research.

But it was not always so. The pollsters
of the previous age plunged the US
into trouble when their statistics misled the nation’s media. In the 1948
Presidential election, the “soothsayers” predicted victory for the Republican candidate
Thomas Dewey. Now without waiting for the official count of the vote after the
ballot, US newspapers declared in screaming headlines: Dewey defeats Truman.